Uttar Pradesh Congress general body meet after 26 years

Lucknow, March 13 (IANS) After a long gap of 26 years, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) has decided to hold its general body meeting, a top Congress leader said here Thursday. Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well as her son and party national general secretary Rahul Gandhi would address the meet to be held in Kanpur March 30-31.

When the last UPCC general body meeting was held in 1982, it was another mother and son duo - then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi - who addressed the session.

Significantly, then Indira Gandhi was holding the dual charge of Congress national president and the prime minsiter while Rajiv Gandhi was the party general secretary.

“The meet would be followed by a public rally at Kanpur’s historic Phool Bagh on March 31″, said Jaiswal.

State Congress chief Rita Bahuguna-Joshi described the proposed meeting as a great opportunity to revive the party in Uttar Pradesh where it had virtually gone into oblivion after ruling undisputedly for four long decades.

Asked why none had cared to hold this meeting over the past two and a half decade, she said: “Well, apparently no one cared to see our bye-laws which prescribe that the general body must meet every three years.”